London/New York (6 February 2024) The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize today announces ten finalists for the prestigious playwriting award – the largest and oldest playwriting award recognizing women+ writers for plays of outstanding quality written for the English-speaking theatre.

The ten finalists, chosen from over 200 submitted plays, are:

Roxy Cook (UK-Russia) A Woman Walks into a Bank

April De Angelis (UK) The Divine Mrs S

Justice Hehir (US) The Dowagers

Rhianna Ilube (UK) Samuel Takes a Break…,In Male Dungeon No.5 After a Long But Generally Successful Day of Tours

Jasmine Naziha Jones (UK) Baghdaddy

Alex Lin (US) Chinese Republicans

Lenelle Moïse (US) K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Hannah Moscovitch (CAN) Red Like Fruit

a.k. payne (US) Love I Awethu Further

Ava Pickett (UK) 1536

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Hot on the heels of a sold-out North American tour, get ready for the return of the music force that is Akon to venues across the UK and Europe for the first time in 10 years, as the superstar announces The Superfan Tour for 2024.

Produced by Live Nation, this 17-city tour promises to be an intimate performance from Akon that dives into fan favourites from the iconic catalogue over the past two decades, including chart-toppers like Beautiful, Locked Up, Right Now (Na Na Na), and Smack That, to name a few.

Having sold more than 35 million albums worldwide and penned an astonishing forty-five Billboard Hot 100 songs. Akon’s global sound has earned him countless American Music, Billboard Music, World Music, BET Hip Hop, Teen Choice, and ASCAP Awards. In a statement, Akon said: “I hope my UK and European fans are ready for a show filled with good music and energy! It’s been 10 years since I’ve done shows out here, so I cannot wait!”

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In our fast paced, non stop concrete world, it can often feel impossible to take a few moments to just stop what you’re doing, and live in the present moment – taking in the beauty of the natural world around us – of which we ourselves are apart of but far removed from. Inviting us to take a much needed pause, Luxmuralis’ video projected exhibition LIFE takes over the medieval confines of St-Martin-in-the-Field – an ASMR experience I’m hoping returns to the venue soon!

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School forms a significant part of our childhoods/teenagehood – educational structures that are vital for setting us up towards the future and our potentially lifelong friendships. But what happens when this structure doesn’t necessarily address the mental health and emotional realities of the day? Emma Anderson’s pertinent production The Lesson opens up the conversation on how the system could better respond to increasing mental health demand, hopefully starting the necessary steps to address this.

Placed in an underfunded, London based secondary school, The Lesson sways between drama teacher Clara (Geebs Marie Williams) solitarily in her drama studio doing what she can to best plan ahead for a successful teaching week, burnt out, pondering, continually attempting to problem solve how she can better support the future generation.

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To satisfy the phenomenal demand, four additional Adele in Munich shows have been added to the previously announced summer run at Munich Messe.  In addition to previously announced dates, Adele has added shows on the 14^th, 16^th, 23^rd and 24^th of August 2024 (see below for full list of dates).  Earlier this week, fans were delighted when the global superstar announced the initial Adele in Munich dates, her first mainland Europe shows since 2016.  As previously reported, a bespoke open-air arena will be created especially for this residency with capacity for 80,000 people per night (see below for venue rendering).

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‘Her Story’ is becoming prominent in our current era – a vital step towards fleshing out a more nuanced perspective of history from the many women that have shaped and continue to shape our world. This is an exciting time historically for expanding the history books – Tudor England a significant part of British history characterised by King Henry VIII’s reign (1509-1547) and the formation of the Church of England. As well as the reign of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I over a decade after his passing (1558-1603). Renowned for the fact that he married six times, which was unconventional for the time, this part of history is framed from the perspective of a victorious King Henry, however – seldom do we hear about the lives of those around him. Cue Toby Marlow’s and Lucy Moss’ much loved musical Six, placing the voices of his six wives at the fore – something that would have tapped into the zeitgeist in 2018, peaking interest – and with that, starting a chain reaction of looking at more women-led stories in this way!

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UK fans rejoice as Bryson Tiller adds a second London date to ‘The Bryson Tiller Tour’due to incredible demand. The Grammy-nominated multi-platinum selling recording artist is set to return to the UK later this Spring as he plays venues including London’s OVO Arena Wembley, Glasgow’s O₂ Academy and Manchester’s O₂ Victoria Warehouse

Tickets for ‘The Bryson Tiller Tour’ go on general sale 10am Friday 2^nd February at metropolismusic.com.

‘The Bryson Tiller Tour’ – UK Dates:

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The winners of The Stage Awards, in association with Tysers Live, have been announced at the annual awards ceremony at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. The prestigious event took place in front of an audience from every corner of the industry, with guests including West End producers, artistic directors, stage stars and many of the figures who featured in The Stage 100 list.

Now entering its 14th year, The Stage Awards were launched in 2010 to highlight the achievements in theatre across the UK. This year it turned its attention to 30 nominees across nine categories, all of whom exemplified the very best of the theatre community. For the first time this year, there was also the surprise addition of a Judges’ Award, presented to theatre company Chickenshed, in celebration of 50 years of excellence.

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Today, critically-acclaimed K-Pop powerhouses ITZY announce their return to the global stage for their 2nd world tour – Born to Be, a show-stopping run of electrifying performances across 18 countries in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Europe and North America this spring and summer. Having demonstrated their exceptional skills as “stage masters” through a mix of hit songs and B-side tracks on their sold-out 1st world tour 2022 outing, Checkmate, the group’s expanded 2024 world tour is poised to uphold their reputation during their return to North America and Asia. Born to Be will also feature the group’s highly anticipated first performances in Latin America, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Produced by JYP Entertainment and promoted by Live Nation, the 27-city tour kicks off on February 24 & 25 for a two-nightrun at Seoul’s Jamsil Indoor Stadium then proceeds around the world to Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Mexico, Chile, the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Japan, the US, Canada, Taiwan and the Philippines. The tour will wrap up with a final performance in Hong Kong. Full dates can be found below.

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Hot on the heels of being nominated for a record breaking seven BRIT Awards, becoming the most nominated artist in a single year in BRIT Award history – Global superstar and cultural icon RAYE announces her first ever headline show at London’s O2 Arena. Tickets go on sale 10am on Tuesday 30 January at LiveNation.co.ukThis momentous event will be a larger take on My 21st Century Symphony Live, the sensational show at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall with a majestic live orchestra and an incredible gospel choir, televised on BBC One and closed a groundbreaking 2023 for RAYE. RAYE was overwhelmed by the response to the BBC airing of the Royal Albert Hall performance and received so many messages asking her to do it again. RAYE says “This is my first headline performance at The O2 Arena. We will have 90 guests on stage, including the Heritage Orchestra and Flames Collective, our guests from The Royal Albert Hall, to perform My 21st Century Symphony. We scarily will have one month to attempt to sell 18,000 tickets, but no matter how many tickets we sell or don’t sell, I’m going to give the best show I can possibly give. I am counting down the days for this moment”.

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